


Studies in Kissing

by wolfwars



Category: Masters of Sex
Genre: F/F, before canon incidents that makes this person sad, masters of sex the show, sex study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 08:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2185488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfwars/pseuds/wolfwars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lillian walks in on the sex study and is quite surprised to see it in person. one shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Studies in Kissing

**Author's Note:**

> i'm in total mourning and denial about Lillian DePaul and i've gotta leave it that way!  
> otherwise i'm just heartbroken, :(  
> i really loved her character!

Virginia’s forty minutes (and 30 seconds) late and Dr. L. DePaul is at least 80% certain she knows exactly the who, where, what and why of the situation. Quite easy actually, since Master’s can use up to twelve human guinea pigs a day while she has to struggle to get even _one person_ to even learn the word ‘pap smear’ along with her low-number of patients she sees regularly. Every increase of test subjects he sees, the later it takes Virginia to show up or do anything other than idle around uselessly yelling out her passionate propaganda.

 

Maybe she shouldn’t resent him for it (and maybe she should). But when her work shoes _tap tap tap_ along the floor, she can’t help but notice the loud noise her stride makes on the hospital tiles as it gets louder and louder. Maybe she’s angry. Maybe she’s pissed. Maybe she doesn’t even know herself!

 

“Dr. DePaul,” Dr. Masters acknowledges her, curtly, his clipboard still juggled in one hand and a stopwatch in the other. All she sees before her is a peculiar little room with wires, a bed and machine-readings that quite noisily shuffle around beside her – oh and _moaning_ , loud, loud moaning.

 

She sees Virginia with a towel and a… phallace… in her hands.

“Lillian!” Her eyes show surprise, but nothing else out of place – even with a rather large dildo in her hands, she looks casual, “I’m _so_ sorry, I was about to go—”

 

“Why doesn’t Ms. DePaul come and see what we do for herself?” Masters was, strangely, more friendly than Lillian had usually seen him. Maybe here, he was at his best. His eyes young and boyish, mouth curved into an almost-grin though his whole face was marked by tiny lenses and an almost impartial doctor wariness… sometimes that ‘humanity’ bled through, usually when doing what he actually cared about…

 

Lillian nodded shyly then went off to the observatory room. She felt her hands fidget nervously as she tried not to pay too much attention to the session in front of her… a woman writhing on the table and another man, supposedly her partner, waiting beside her.

 

“Alright 2314, I’d like you to assume positions one and four. And please, remember which position felt more pleasurable so we can record it later, BOTH OF YOU,” Masters said (almost stoically). Lillian couldn’t picture being so stoic in front of real-life pornography, even now she felt her cheeks flush. Her face made a habit of becoming as red as a tomato and usually at the most inconvenient time.

 

Masters’ muttered something cold and observatory, to which Virginia had to step in with some kind or warm comment. The two seemed to have their own pattern, the straight-laced doctor and his kindly, more human, companion. Lillian couldn’t help but wonder if she and Ms. Johnson reflected the same dynamic. I mean, as far as she knew, half this hospital joked about her being a ‘robot’ instead of a woman, instead of a real person. But it wasn’t the first or last time she’d been dehumanized in her workplace, so how should such a thing shock her?

“Hey, are you okay?” Virginia whispered, sneaking in beside her in the booth. She pressed her own clipboard down on the table in front of them.

“It’s rare I see _real science_ at work,” Lillian muttered. Her voice conveying her mockery.

Sex study. What a joke. _Sex study_.

“You know… maybe if you weren’t so…” Virginia looked her up and down, trying to find a nicer word… “ _You_ , then maybe more women like yourself could benefit from a study like this.”

“I see the woman on the table is benefiting quite greatly, if that’s what you’re supposing.” She stopped to think about, feeling greatly insulted by the second.

“ _Plus_ , Ms. Johnson, I take offense that you think I’m some sort of… sort of…”

“Virgin?” Virginia asked, almost with a humming sort of joy in the jab. She was smiling—no _smirking_ to herself.

“Hmph, well I guess if my last name isn’t Masters or Johnson then I just don’t know _a thing_ about sex! I don't get to be some sort of sexy-science-sex-professional,” She then crossed her arms, hoping to at least to apply some respect or dignity to her words, but Lillian couldn’t help but notice the laughter Virginia thought she had been disguising through her hands. Hmph indeed.

 

Virginia giggled then looked up at her, eyes bright with amusement. It was times like this where they poked the most fun at each other that Lillian felt a weird sense of relief. She didn’t know why or how—or if she could even take such amiability at this level, but somehow it made her feel _understood_. Someone understands me. Even if it’s just to make me their punch line.

Over on the table in front of them, Masters scribbled furiously as participant number 1, a pretty blonde Lillian was pretty sure she’d seen around the hospital, provided… oral… oral sex on the man participant. Her cheeks were suddenly feeling warmer and warmer.

Virginia, of course, was taking great joy in it.

 

“Dr. DePaul, you know you can leave if it’s getting too provocative in here for you… maybe it’s best you sit and read some… less exciting science files.”

“ _Oh bother_ , I… am just not used… **to... this**.”

A cat had her tongue and the cat wasn’t letting go, she couldn’t help but fumble her words as she tried to look away (yet kept looking) at the feverous sexual intimacy taking place in front of them. She'd seen rabbits with more modesty.

“Well let’s see then,” Virginia smiled and pulled up a few pieces of paper with the application questionnaire on them, “How much experience _do you have_ , Doctor?”

“No...”

“How about your first sexual encounter?” Virginia’s smiled big enough to flash all her white teeth and perfect, red lipstick, “Let me guess, it was some smitten TA at med school? No, or it was something completely non-sequitor, like a bellhop at a hotel…”

Lillian squirmed but she didn’t like being bested. Not one bit. And especially not by Virginia. So she’d have to answer. Even when answering made her feel foolish and naked.

“There was a boy… a friend of the family… my father’s friend’s son. We sort of were… expected to be together from the start. He was cute, shy, friendly. And almost smart, almost a bright kid.”

    “Was he any good in bed?” Virginia asked, tongue on the edge of her teeth. Getting ready to laugh and joke.

     “Don’t be crude! He was _fine_.”

     “Fine? Fine isn’t good, believe me.” Virginia laughed. They looked at the couple, participant 2 was pinning 1 to the table, his head resting above her as he gripped the table. Virginia was supposed to be paying more attention, not asking embarrassing questions. Lillian gazed at the kind, passionate touches the two gave each other. The intense eye-contact, the caresses on skin. She remembered her first time and it was more awkward than anything else. Not even very long. No it was fine, but it wasn’t _good_. Virginia was right about that.

 “A good lover is… rare. It’s rare to find someone who really touches you. I… I have experienced things, of course, but only in a modest framework.”

Virginia, who watched her deeply, didn’t look like she wanted to laugh this time. Her eyes were on her but her mind somewhere else. _I want to help people like you_ , she’d said.

“Has anyone ever made you—” Virginia begin, waiting for her to finish. Lillian shrugged a little but replied, “Yes but not often.”

Virginia clucked her tongue, “ _Now that’s a shame…”_

“Sshhh! Don’t be ridiculous,” Lillian smiled despite herself. Yes, a shame. It was a shame.

 

“Are you good in bed?” Virginia asked, smiling—her eyes joyful and teasing again. Lillian could almost handle a happy, devious assistant over the saddened-impassioned one who looked at her like she was a walking bomb about to set off. Something that made you duck and cover until it was finished and you were just… _free_ again. She didn’t like the feeling of caging anyone. No. not someone as vivacious as Virginia. She’d didn’t like tying Ms. Johnson to her depressing, empty future. No, not at all. No one should look at her like that. Like she was going to hurt them again and again.

 

 

Lillian tried to shake the darker thoughts from her mind (even though they always lay, carefully controlled and her under their grip).

“Am I good in bed!” She huffed, “Are you?”

Virginia perked a brow up then gave her a look. A ‘don’t you already know?’ look.

“What!” Lillian exclaimed (tired of games).

 

“I’m insulted you’d even ask,” Virginia said, “You see that on the table? That’s nothing… I’m the kind of lover you don’t forget. I have boys on my doorstep _, my doorstep_ because they won’t just leave me alone. I’m the best they’ve ever had, they say… and let’s just say sex is one of the few ways I feel comfortable with someone. Sex isn’t like love, it just isn’t.”

 

Was it her turn to laugh at her finally? Lillian wondered. It’d be nice to get to mock someone else for once. But those words didn’t make her feel like laughing or mocking, no, no, she just felt painfully _curious_. Insanely curious. Suddenly her mind was picturing her minimum wage employee in all sorts of beds with attractive men, different men. Kissing passionately, looking like the movie stars, Gone With the Wind kisses that leave you breathless and feverous.

 

Everything from a world that was completely different from hers. The kind of world where you are so open and comfortable with sex that you can stare at couples copulating and not feel threatened or strange. Or aroused. Or anything. That kind of comfort… she could never attain.

“You look like you don’t believe me,” Virginia muttered, her fingers flying to fix the top buttons of her collar, “But I’m the one who should be doubting your capabilities.”

“I’m a doctor and a surgeon, I’m very capable.”

Virginia turned her head quickly, amused, “So you are automatically a good lover?”

“Well—I—I know my anatomy.”

“ _Don’t flirt with me, doctor_ ,” Virginia mock-gasped and extended her hand, pretending to be scandalized by Lillian’s uncomfortable words.

“You’re the flirt!”

“Oh am I? So we’re finally admitting I’m the good lover and you’re the doctor and basically everything in between is just _fine._ And fine is a mood killer so there’s nothing really fine about fine?”

“Fine is perfectly adequate.”

“Ptttf,” Virginia mocked effortlessly as she blew out air from her lips, “I know for a _fact_ that that’s not true. There’s nothing good about a cold lover with absolutely no gift for pillow talk.”

 

“Are you implying I am such?” Lillian asked. She wasn’t only red but suddenly furious. Though she held it back carefully as can be, she was mad and her skin was hot and her fingers felt like clawing into the insulting woman’s skin.

“ _I’ve seen your beside manner_ ,” She replied with a joking voice. Lillian turned her eyes away from the obstinate woman (though really only obstinate in _her eyes_ ) and watched as Masters’ took notes of position four. Which seemed to involve a whole lot of aerodynamics between two already hot, sweaty, sex-fueled bodies.

“Virginia!” He called out from the room.

“Just a second!” Virginia huffed back, her own face looking, surprisingly red to Lillian. Not red-red, like hers could be but not as pale as usual. Lillian wanted to smirk herself at that.

“Virginia!” He yelled out again.

“Your Masters is calling,” Lillian joked. Virginia turned to look at her and roll her eyes.

“Bill, I’ll be out soon, just settling important matters with Dr. DePaul.”

 

 

Bill nodded then turned around, though he looked a bit taken aback at the response. Lillian supposed he wasn’t a man who was used to hearing ‘no’. She knew from personal experience that it was never a word her heard from the committee board. No, they seemed to funnel him all the money he needed on any little occasion.

As she reflected through her thoughts about Dr. Masters, she failed to notice Virginia staring thoughtfully at her, from beside her.

“Lillian,” she said quietly.

“Wha-“ Lillian turned to face her but was surprised. Two hands found her face and thought she must have knew certainly what was coming, she was still shocked. Virginia looked into her eyes, lashes fluttering before pulling her face towards hers and kissing her…

 

 

Her mind cleared. Her heart raced. She couldn’t think of a single other thing, like her queue of ideas had been switched and replaced with only this: Virginia’s hands, her lips, her eyelids brushing against her own, freckly, hot cheeks. Hands pulling her forward from the tangle of her almost-messy hair to one dragging her forwards.

She was embarrassed! This was crude! But her mind went fuzzy, white—like a car skidding off the road…

Her lips opened to let out a soft, sharp whine.

Virginia pulled back and smiled. Wide, knowingly.

 _Ruined, she was ruined_. Lillian panicked.

 

She pressed down at her skirt, breathe hard and embarrassingly ragged. She tried to compose herself.

         “Mhmmm…” Virginia looked at her, looking more and more proud of herself by the moment.

         “I’m good, aren’t I?” She asked, grinning.

Lilian’s jaw almost fell open but she wasn’t one to be slack jawed, so instead,

         “Terrible. You think a kiss from a woman is any good?”

         “Alright Lillian!” She’d struck a nerve but Virginia was almost more ferocious when she was being put down or antagonized than at any other moment.

         “Your pulse was going was a mile a minute! Skin warm, erratic breathing patterns and dilated pupils… all exhibiting the patient’s heightened levels of arousal, practically leading to the ‘excitement’ phase of someone in the throes of phase 1 intercourse… you can’t fool me, Lillian, _I’m literally an expert_.”

        

Good heavens, she felt like she’d had a building fall over on her. Lillian panicked, her hands shook, her heart raced. She was stupid, so, so stupid. Why did she come here? Why did she stay? What could she even say to look less like a sex-starved idiot?

“Ok.” She muttered, resentfully. There was nothing she could say anyway, nothing. She might as well throw in the towel. Let Virginia win her little games. Don’t put up a fight. Just say ‘yes’ and move on.

“Ok?” Virginia looked pleased. Her hands moved to touch Lillian’s sides, very lightly. No sort of promise in the contact. Just the kind of touch they’d shared many times already.

“I see what they see, all those suitors on your door.”

“Well… I didn’t get to rate you,” Virginia leaned in sweetly. She stared at her lips. Lillian sighed.

 

This was terrible. A greatly terrible, foolish idea.

 

But who said she should ever let a woman like Ms. Johnson steal her glory?

 

Plus, isn’t she rather good to anything she put her mind to? Maybe she could even win. Lillian smiled but didn’t let a damned thing she was about to do be known, she held Virginia’s hands then walked to the door that lead to the examine room. Virginia watched curiously as she kicked it shut.

 

Then she turned on her heel and pressed Virginia against it. She’d heard about kisses like these. Maybe if she even tried hard enough she could be the swift, romantic, lead in the movies. The one who presses you hard against a wall and makes you forget what day it is…

 

Lillian leaned in and pushed their lips together, felt her heart racing nervously. She didn’t know what this was. What it would lead to. She knew it felt nice, exciting, fun. She knew Virginia was a charmer. Someone she needed.

         She kissed her like she needed it, like she was joining them together—dreams, hardships, _and love_. Everything they were both looking for, she pushed all her frustrations out in the kiss, kissed her hard and soft like her life depended on it.

         When she heard a loud moan, she was startled but also encouraged. Lillian ran her fingers through her dark hair, tugging on the back of her head. Light than hard. She tugged her lips forward and moved her lips to her neck, her lower ear. Back to her lips.

 

Then she pulled away.

 

Her ‘partner’ looked like she’d been hit by a bus. Her hair everywhere, eyes dark (which Lillian had to admit, she found strangely attractive) and body crumbled. Not it’s usual confident stride.

 

“I win.” She grinned to herself.

 

“You win.” Virginia whispered back, half-surprised to be saying it. But her surprised face became composed and she stood up straight (again) and her voice took on a fake air of knowledge, “Doctors win after all. Good thing I’m becoming one because I now think I might have to spend more of my company in the time of doctors…you’re full of surprises.”

 

“Maybe I just don’t like being provoked.” Lillian replied, calmly.

“Then you should definitely be provoked more often, I’m thinking about provoking you _everyday_ ,” Virginia joked back, light and teasing.

 

Lillian had to smile, it was nice to find someone who challenged her (like it was easy), cared when it was hard to care, loved when she thought no one could love and kissed like they were kissing the last material thing on earth and by kissing it, it wouldn’t be lost forever. Her legs felt shaky.

 

“Virginia!” Masters hollered agiain.

 

Virginia let out a shaky sigh (followed by a shaky laugh) and turned to open the door.

 

But strangely her eyes never left Lillian’s. Not as she went back to the room, or talked to Bill or took her participants post-sex pulse.

 

What a strange study to see, afterall.


End file.
